Available (for the next five days) to listen at the BBC website is Sunday's highly recommended Chapel Royal service marking the 500th anniversary of the coronation of Henry VIII, with music of William Smith, Purcell, Tallis, and Henry VIII himself. The King's "Green Growth the Holly" features BBC Young Chorister of the Year Harry Bradford, 13, as soloist. The Rt Rev'd & Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London and Dean of the Chapel Royal, preaches a thoughtful and inspiring sermon on the monarchy.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Exiled de jure Shah Reza II Pahlavi and his mother Empress Farah view the current turmoil in Iran as a threat to the Islamic Republic. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that most opponents of the Ahmadinejad regime see monarchy as the answer. Crown Prince Reza says that he is not necessarily fighting for the the restoration of the monarchy, but only for a democratic and secular government which might or might not include a European-style constitutional monarchy; I wish he would, but perhaps he is simply being prudent.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Writing in TakiMag about the diverse anti-modern faction in American politics known loosely as "paleos," Charles Coulombe makes a provocative observation relevant to monarchists such as himself: "I am, myself, a Catholic Monarchist at base; Robespierre was not. Yet he was more a man of the Ancien Regime than I could ever be, just I am much more a man of the Revolution. The reason, of course, lies in the periods of our upbringing, and the influences of the culture around us."

This is a problem I have thought about but had never seen summarized so succinctly and brutally. It is frankly difficult for 21st-century monarchists, especially those of us living in a country which lacks not only a monarch but any post-independence monarchical tradition of its own, to achieve the authenticity of, say, a French royalist in the 19th century when the question of "Monarchy versus Republic" was still very much part of mainstream public discourse, kings still reigned or had reigned within living memory, and society's prevailing values were still essentially conservative. And our lives are in many ways more "modern," more thoroughly shaped by the legacies of the anti-monarchist Revolutions than those of the original advocates of those Revolutions--just as many contemporary "conservative Christians" routinely dress in ways that would have seemed indecent to secular progressives of a hundred or even fifty years ago and listen to "music" the latter would have dismissed as noise. That is the nature of the Revolution; it ultimately influences even those who believe themselves opposed to it. To a certain extent we have to accept this--no monarchist today can actually live, consistently, as if it were still 1788--but I'm sure my friend Mr. Coulombe would agree that that is no reason to give up!

Prince Charles's latest intervention against modernist architecture has stirred up quite the controversy, reports Andrew Pierce. Obviously, as one who would be happy for royalty to wield more power than they currently do, I have no patience with those who object to the Prince using his influence because he is "unelected." In any case, as Gerald Warner points out, who elected his critic Lord Rogers? Modernist architecture has been thrust down the throats of people who never wanted it for years; it's about time someone with the ability to do so make a difference. Andrew Roberts is correct to celebrate HRH's "meddling."

The above picture shows Pedro with his double first cousin Princess Alix de Ligne (b 1984), who was to be on the same flight but had decided to take a different one. Pedro's younger brother Prince Rafael (b 1986) is next in line and presumably must now tragically be considered to have replaced him in the succession.